


You Might Find You Get What You Need

by MollyC



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Cold Oak, Episode: s02e22 All Hell Breaks Loose, Human Castiel, adopted!Cas, canon character death, stoatsandwich
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-16
Updated: 2012-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-29 16:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MollyC/pseuds/MollyC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel lost both his brothers at that moment; it just took one longer to die</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Might Find You Get What You Need

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stoatsandwich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stoatsandwich/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Brotherly Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/280906) by [stoatsandwich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stoatsandwich/pseuds/stoatsandwich). 



> First, you should go read stoatsandwich's series "The One Where the Winchesters Adopt Castiel". This will make less than no sense if you don't. Read up through "Our Epic Fucking Bromance," then this one.

Castiel is one and three-quarters inches shorter than Dean. At the moment, that doesn't matter; they're both leaving Bobby behind. Their shouts, _look out_ and _get down_ , didn't help; Sam was clutching his arm to his body, clearly half in shock, and the tall kid behind him drove something into his back and Sam looked surprised and swayed on his feet and now Dean's at a slightly better angle so he's the one who catches Sam under the arms and eases him down, repeating his name like a mantra. They're on their knees, chest to chest in a parody of intimacy, and Cas half-falls beside them. Bobby runs past in pursuit of the kid, but they ignore him; Sam is all that matters now.

“Sam, Sam, Sam,” Dean says. Sam smiles at him, dazed, and Dean's voice is tight when he says, “Hey, hey, come here, come here and let Cas look at you.” He pulls Sam forward, taking all his weight, and Cas shuffles around enough to see Sam's back.

The wound is pulsing blood in time with the beat of Sam's heart, and it's right over his spine, and Cas looks up to meet Dean's eyes and Dean reads everything in his face. But he says, “Oh, hey look, hey look at me, it's not even that bad. It's not even that bad, alright?” Cas presses a hand over the wound, as if that's going to help, and he sees the first tear trailing from Dean's eye. “Sammy, Sam!” Dean says urgently, as Sam's eyes flicker and half-close. Cas puts his other hand on Dean's, so they're both resting on Sam's shoulder; Cas's finger is against Sam's neck and he can feel the pulse stuttering, weakening. He desperately wants to say something, can't work out what, and he's pathetically grateful that Dean's still talking. “Hey, listen to me, we are going to patch you up, okay? You'll be as good as new, huh?”

Sam's head sags. Dean grabs it and forces it upright, staring into Sam's fluttering eyes, and Cas wants to howl at the despair in his brother's voice. “We're going to take care of you. I'm going to take care of you. I gotcha. It's my job, right, watch out for my pain-in-the-ass little brothers.” Sam is still trying to smile, but he's clearly not focusing anymore. Castiel presses closer to his brothers, trying to hold on to Sam's life by sheer force of will, even as it’s fading. “Sam. Sam. Sam! Sammy!” Dean says. Castiel knows when the thread of Sam's life snaps, knows it in every inch of his body as Sam's eyes close and his head falls forward onto Dean's shoulder, between Dean's head and Cas's, and they can both feel it when the last breath he will ever draw leaves him. “No,” Dean says, but Cas can't say a word. “No. No! Oh god. Oh god, Sam!”

Castiel watches his big brother break.

\- - -

They have Sam laid out on the bare mattress. He's on his back, you can't see the wound, but he doesn't look like he's sleeping.

Dean's sitting on one of the two good chairs in the place. Cas is on the bed, his back against the footboard. They've both been there for hours. Bobby came in once and told Dean they needed to bury the body, and Dean had yelled at him, but Cas had only been able to stare, trying not to hate the older man.

Now they're just sitting. Cas keeps dozing off, no matter how he tries not to. After a while he thinks he hears Dean's voice, talking about his responsibilities and how he's screwed them up, couldn't even keep his little brother alive, and Cas wants to protest, and he's going to when suddenly he's jerked all the way awake by Dean shouting, “ _What am I supposed to do?_ ” and kicking the bed hard enough that even through his boots it probably stings.

Cas blinks sleep out of his eyes. Dean is pale, his expression set, and Cas feels a stab of fear because he knows that face. Dean got that face from their dad, and that face means Dean is about to do something very, very stupid.

“I gotta fix this, Cas,” Dean says, quiet now, and turns on his heel. He starts rummaging through their bags. He finds a cigar box, empties it of its contents.

Cas, standing in the door, catches on when Dean pulls apart a charm bag for the yarrow inside and throws the stalks into the box. “Dean, no,” he breathes, but Dean shows no sign of hearing him, just paws around. “Dean,” Cas tries again. “Dean, stop it!” It’s the first time he’s spoken since before Sam…since before.

“You know I can't,” Dean says without turning, pulling things from bags. Cas gets two steps towards the cigar box before Dean snatches it up and clutches it against his chest. “I can save him, Cas,” he says, and his voice is so broken that Castiel just nods.

“We'll think of something,” he says, and prays Dean will believe him. “Come on. We'll think of something else. Don't do this.” He moves closer and pulls Dean to him, the box digging sharp corners into both of them. Dean tenses, and then everything goes out of him and he sags and says, low, “OK.” He draws a deep breath and Cas feels the relief wash over him; he's lost one brother, he _can't_ lose the other. Dean pulls back and gives Cas a shaky smile, and Cas has just started to smile back when the bracelet of a pair of handcuffs closes over his wrist.

He stares at it stupidly. Later that's what will be the hardest: that he didn't catch on right away. Dean yanks him a few staggering feet to the staircase and clicks the other bracelet around the sturdiest of the bannister-rods; it snaps Castiel out of his fog, but not quite soon enough for his wild grab for Dean to succeed.

From there, Dean doesn't speak. He doesn't respond to Cas's threats and pleas and arguments, just pulls out the rest of what he needs. When he's got it all, he grabs his jacket and heads for the front door, and in desperation Cas yells, “ _At least let me do it!_ ”

Dean stops short, but he doesn't turn back. He cocks his head a little towards his brother and says, “I gotta do it. It's my job, you know it is.” He pauses, and Cas can hear his breath. “Try and get loose before he wakes up. I'll be back soon.” And then he walks out. Cas hears the Impala's engine start and fade into the distance and he screams.

\- - -

An hour and a half later, Sam's eyes flutter open.


End file.
